Bexar set to turn the page on idea of books in libraries

Exterior shot of the Bexar County satellite office at 3505 Pleasanton Road. A bookless library called Bibliotech will be overseen by the county at the facility.

Exterior shot of the Bexar County satellite office at 3505 Pleasanton Road. A bookless library called Bibliotech will be overseen by the county at the facility.

Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News

Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News

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Exterior shot of the Bexar County satellite office at 3505 Pleasanton Road. A bookless library called Bibliotech will be overseen by the county at the facility.

Exterior shot of the Bexar County satellite office at 3505 Pleasanton Road. A bookless library called Bibliotech will be overseen by the county at the facility.

Photo: Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News

Bexar set to turn the page on idea of books in libraries

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Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff is an unabashed book lover with 1,000 first editions in his private collection, but even he sees the writing on the wall.

Paper books have lost their allure, and future generations may have little use for them, Wolff contends.

So when he embarked on a mission to create a countywide library system, he decided it should be bookless from the start.

Today, after months of planning, Wolff and other county leaders will announce plans to launch the nation's first bookless public library system, BiblioTech, with a prototype location on the South Side opening in the fall.

“If you want to get an idea what it looks like, go into an Apple store,” Wolff said.

Inspired while reading Apple founder Steve Jobs' biography, Wolff said he envisions several bookless libraries around the county, including in far-flung suburbs.

“It's not a replacement for the (city) library system, it's an enhancement,” Wolff said.

“People are always going to want books, but we won't be doing that in ours,” Wolff said.

The University of Texas at San Antonio is a pioneer among academic institutions with bookless collections and technical libraries. Many cities, including San Antonio, offer downloadable books and other digitized information along with their paper volumes.

But no entire public library system is bookless, and unlike others, Bexar County's BiblioTech library system won't have a legacy of paper. It'll be designed for, not adapted to, the digital age, Wolff said.

“We've called everywhere and I don't believe anybody's done this before,” he said.

Not that it hasn't been contemplated.

San Antonio is considering a bookless library for the far North Side, using funds set aside for District 9 in the 2012 bond issue.

Newport Beach, Calif., decided in 2011 to make its original library bookless, but withdrew the plans amid public outcry.

Tucson-Pima Public Library System in Arizona opened a small bookless branch in 2002 in a neighborhood where residents were largely without computer access. But about five years ago, the system added books at the community's request, spokeswoman Kenya Johnson said.

“They told us they wanted their own collection there, so we shifted the format and now it's a full-access library. It still has the computers,” she said.

At UTSA, which opened one of the nation's first bookless academic libraries in 2010, officials are pleased with the outcome and confident the concept will spread.

“The students love it. It's full all the time,” UTSA library dean Krisellen Maloney said. UTSA students use the facility in person, at home, in classrooms and via mobile devices, she said.

Despite conveniences, bookless libraries often confront copyright issues. Even so, the county has “the right idea,” Maloney said, because it's planning to have personnel available to help library users with homework or other research.

People visit libraries for various services, “not just for the books,” she said.

“They (Bexar County) are probably coming up to this at just the right time,” Maloney added.

Wolff on Tuesday will ask Commissioners Court to approve several measures to launch BiblioTech, a play on the Spanish word for library — biblioteca.

Commissioners will decide whether to seek a contractor to complete the design of the library and another to provide e-book titles; hire staff; and create a seven-member advisory board.

At least $250,000 will be needed to gain access to the first 10,000 book titles, Wolff said. Costs for design and construction aren't set, but the county will save by using a county-owned building.

“We wanted to find a low-cost, effective way to bring reading and learning to the county and also focus on the change in the world of technology,” Wolff said. “It will help people learn,” he said.

Still, the South Side location — in a remodeled building that houses offices for tax assessor, justice of the peace and constable — is considered a test.

“We want to make sure it works before we have an obligation to do anything else,” Wolff said. Other sites likely would be in shopping centers or spaces provided by partnering suburbs, he said.

With rampant growth in unincorporated areas, and with San Antonio's policy of not annexing more territory, Bexar County needs its own countywide system, Wolff asserted. Harris County operates a system with 29 branches, including two technology labs, he noted.

“People in those outlying areas have no library services, so this would be a relatively inexpensive way to bring those services to them,” Wolff said.

The county pays San Antonio $3.7 million a year so county residents can take advantage of the San Antonio Public Library System, particularly its suburban branches, Wolff said.

But “they want $6.7 million now ... we're the only county that gives this much money to a city system,” he said.

The judge is aware that opposition may arise over cost and need, but he's got his arguments ready. For one thing, the project starts on the South Side — where a decade ago citizens protested over lack of any bookstores there.

“We know they have less access to technology and less economic buying power than other regions of the city,” Wolff said. “Now we'll be providing them a service that anybody else that has money would have,” he said.

The first site, open till 8 p.m. on weeknights, will allow plenty of opportunities for after-school study, said Wolff, a native South Sider.

The countywide aspect of the system still is being planned. Officials envision a system offering any county resident who registers in the system to have easy access to the county's titles.

At the first library, residents will be able to check out one of 100 e-readers available for home use.

Wolff said there may be some losses of the $100 devices, but “we do have your name, we do have your address. You check it out for two weeks, just like a library book. In two weeks, your e-book goes dead, so you won't have anything worth keeping.”